So I was recently tasked with writing a review of my favorite scene in a TV show / movie / whatever, and it occurred to me that I’ve already done that. This sort of thing comes up so often, in fact, that I’ve already written a post about that review. So here it is! Reposted (from a repost) from 2/5/11, slightly edited.
Enjoy.
I'd like to talk a little bit about my favorite movie, mainly because I've just recently decided (or realized) what it is. It's Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.
Why?
Because towards the end of the movie, in the scene where they find the Jaguar Shark, there is more emotion in Bill Murray's expressionless face than I think I have ever seen on an actor's face ever. And that scene is when you (or I, I guess) realize what the movie is actually about. It's not just a quirky, dry comedy about life on the sea, and it's not just a love story, and it's not just about revenge or rescue.
It's a story about a guy who just wants to be admired, like he used to. It's about a guy who just doesn't care enough about anything anymore to care about anything anymore. And then he starts to. It's about a guy who, at the end of everything he's ever had, finds a little something else to have.
And then he loses it, and it's too much. Everything is too awful and beautiful and meaningful and meaningless and he can't decide which he wants to believe, because he believes everything and nothing, and he just wants the world to leave him alone for a while. Provided that it still takes care of him.
And then everything breaks again. But as its breaking it's fixing everything that's been wrong with his life. And at the end, he is happy in his misery.
That's what I see in Bill Murray's expressionless face at the end of that movie.
If you haven't seen it, you need to watch it. And if you have seen it, but don't really understand what I'm saying, you should watch it again.
And if you've seen it, and you hate it, then I guess that's ok too. We just have different tastes.
